Thank you to the Berry Burn Community Fund because without their generous donation this once in a lifetime trip would not have been possible. You have given these children and adults of Forres memories and new friendships that will last for many years to come. For some children they have even exchanged home addresses to start writing letters to each other; it is just fantastic to see the connection they have made. We are now looking forward to hosting our friends from Vienenburg in two years’ time when they visit us, building our friendship even further.

We are incredibly grateful to the Berry Burn Community Fund for supporting Abbi’s continued development in competitive swimming. Their funding enabled Abbi to purchase a specialist Arena race suit and contributed towards accommodation at the Scottish National Age Group Championships.

Thank you to Berry Burn Community Fund for continuing to support Abbi and helping a young swimmer from Speyside compete at national level.

Nourish sessions are small group cooking and wellbeing sessions run over blocks of up to 6 sessions; sessions are led by participants who decide what they would like to make, they then share the meal at the end of the session. Sessions last around 90 minutes and the young people take any extra food home with them.

Nourish provides important life skills, gives young people the opportunity to eat socially, increases confidence, and improves peer relationships; young people experience a sense of pride in what they have achieved.

A huge thank you to the Berry Burn Community Fund on behalf of the candidates from the 2025/2026 Automotive Skills course and myself, the new equipment has already proven itself invaluable both to the candidates and to the charity.

The funding that the Berry Burn Community Fund granted our nursery has created a safer, more accessible and enjoyable garden area for the children. They’re now able to access and explore the garden with greater confidence, supporting play, exploration, physical development and learning. Without this funding the project would not have been possible for our school. 

It has been a great boon to our bowling club to have received this funding to purchase the new Dart Aerator. Without this new machine we could not have maintained our green and the club would have struggled to continue into the future.

The Royal British Legion Scotland Forres Branch are very grateful for the kind donation from the Berry Burn Community Fund. It has allowed us to refurbish some very old toilets and we now have a clean, maintenance friendly facility that all are welcome to use. We hope to bust the myth that you can only come into the Legion if you are ex-military. That has never been the case and we welcome anyone. We have many clubs affiliated with us including the Forres Pipe Band who now practise with us, local fitness groups, bowling clubs and many others. The centre is always open for bookings for parties and weddings and we are proud to support the local community with this service at a very reasonable cost to cover energy, cleaning etc.

A women’s circle project funded by the Berry Burn Community Fund (BBCF) unfortunately had to close earlier than planned due to poor attendance figures. Run by local women’s life coach, Karen Astill, the circles started in September 2024 at The Clubroom on the Altyre Estate. Funding secured in June 2025 was intended to pay for venue hire for a further year but several circles were cancelled due to low numbers. Karen eventually made the decision to stop them and pay back the unspent funding to BBCF.  While the feedback from women attending was entirely positive, numbers weren’t increasing so the circles weren’t sustainable for the long-term. 

The funding we received from the Berry Burn Community Fund has strengthened and expanded Creative Play with Frozen Charlotte in the Forres area. It allowed us to cement our group, employ a second artist and involve a volunteer. Birth to 3 years is the most developmentally significant time in a child’s life. Our group provides the environment and activities for parents to feel inspired and supported and for children’s right to participate meaningfully in arts and culture to be met and nourished.

Our vision is for Grantown Remakery to become a sustainable model of climate-positive operations, a catalyst for a net-zero Grantown and an example of the Circular Community in our locality. Our plan’s primary goals are:

•         Reduce greenhouse gas emissions from our operations by 50% by 2030 and achieve net-zero by 2045.

•         Enhance community resilience by empowering individuals with skills, knowledge, and tools to lead lower-carbon lives.

•         Promote a culture of repair, reuse, and circular economy as climate solutions.

•         Operate in partnership with other local organisations and businesses to achieve the above goals.

Grantown Remakery would like to thank the Berry Burn Community Fund for their support. This enabled us to purchase the shop as part of a package with other funders and to install an Air Source Heating System to the new shop creating a warm, comfortable and sustainable environment for our staff, volunteers and trainees and to work towards meeting our Carbon Reduction objectives.